The other day, l took my nephews Bill and Bob up to London to see the sights. We used a company in Rocky Bay to book our short holiday;

Weekend Breaks, run by Gladys Friday.

The boys were very excited about going to London. lt is very different from Rocky Bay. lt is really enormous and one of the most important cities in the world.

We saw Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament and then we went to see Buckingham Palace before we had our lunch in St James’ Park – which is just outside the front of the palace.

You have to walk there because no buses pass in front of Buckingham Palace. (Unless you can afford a taxi of course.)

Buckingham Palace is a very interesting house. lt is the main residence of the Queen when she is in London and you know when she is at home because a flag called the Royal Standard (representing England, Scotland and lreland) flies above the palace; otherwise it is the Union Jack.

Queen Victoria was the first monarch to live there.

Buckingham Palace has around 600 rooms and hundreds of staff to look after the Queen, the Royal Family and the palace. This includes 2 people who are employed to look after the 300 clocks!

There are many rooms that people can go and visit in the summer when the Queen goes on holiday. You can see the throne room and some reception rooms and dining rooms.

lt is a family home and also a place where the Queen entertains important people. The Prime Minister visits her every Tuesday evening. They talk about world news and have a drink.

lt takes three days to lay the table for a banquet and three days to do the washing up afterwards. When all the knives, forks, spoons and glasses are laid on the table, the distance between everything is measured to make sure each place setting looks exactly the same. The distance between the back of the chair and the edge of the table is measured too.

There are five glasses for each person. One for white wine, one for red wine, one for water, one for port and one for liqueur.

There are many bedrooms and bathrooms and offices in the palace too. But did you know that there is also a cinema, a swimming pool, a hospital, a post office and a police station!

And three miles of red carpets.

There is a special room for the corgis as well. They sleep in wicker baskets kept above ground level so that they will be out of draughts. They always have nice, fresh food to eat and often travel on private planes with the Queen. They are an important part of the family.

At the back of the palace there is a big garden with a lake and a place to land helicopters.

About 50,000 people are invited to the palace every year to banquets, dinners and lunches and also garden parties which are held in the back garden.

There is also a large stable block where magnificent coaches decorated with gold are kept. The horses that live there go on holiday every summer for six weeks to a big park in Windsor and if they don’t want to come back home to go to work when their holiday is over, the Queen’s soldiers have to run after them to catch them and bring them home!

lf you ever go to London in the summer, you can visit Buckingham Palace too.

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